ONE MILLION B.C.

My birthday was a couple days ago, and my good buddy Josh Kennedy usually gets me a present. This year he gifted me the VCI Blu-ray of Hal Roach’s ONE MILLION B.C., the 1940 prehistoric adventure that was famously remade by Hammer Films in the mid 1960s as ONE MILLION YEARS B.C. with Raquel Welch.

I was going to state that I had never seen ONE MILLION B.C., but that technically isn’t true. I’ve seen FX footage from it several times–those scenes have been reused over and over again in numerous different movies and TV shows (there’s probably someone using that footage for a YouTube video right now). Because of the familiarity of the footage, and its use in so many mediocre productions, I had always assumed the film itself wasn’t all that impressive.

Having now viewed it, I have to say that it comes off rather well. One major surprise for me was how close Hammer stuck to the main storyline–both versions have basically the same plot, with the same character names. The 1940 version opens in contemporary times, as a group of hikers take shelter in a cave, where they discover a scientist (Conrad Nagel) examining the artifacts and carvings within. The scientist proceeds to tell a story to the travelers, a story he bases on the cave drawings he has discovered. The scientist suggests that the man and the woman featured in the story look much like two of the hikers, this duo being played by Victor Mature and Carol Landis. As the movie goes way, way back in time, Mature and Landis also play the prehistoric leads, two young people from different tribes, who go through various trials and tribulations before they can find a sort of peace for themselves.

When one thinks of either of the versions of ONE MILLION, Raquel Welch automatically comes to mind. It must be pointed out that Carole Landis in her day was as much of a pin-up star as Welch was. If anything, Landis and Victor Mature are more glamorous than Welch and John Richardson were in the remake. Both are conspicuously absent of body hair, and their facial profiles are constantly kept squeaky clean. Mature and Landis could have both wound up looking ridiculous, but they give very good performances under the circumstances.

Carole Landis and Victor Mature in ONE MILLION B.C.

The best performance in the film is by Lon Chaney Jr. as Mature’s father, the leader of their tribe. In the first part of the film Lon Jr. is brutal and tyrannical, ruling everyone around him with an iron fist and ignoring those he considers beneath him. Later, after he is grievously wounded in a fight with a wild beast, Chaney is a pathetic wreck of a being. In this role Lon Jr. showed he could be as skillful at pantomime as his famous father, and you’d never believe that the younger Chaney was only seven years older than his “son” Mature. Lon Jr. had just played Lennie in Hal Roach’s production of the esteemed novel OF MICE AND MEN, and one wonders what could have happened if Chaney had stuck with Roach instead of going to Universal.

If ONE MILLION B.C. is known for anything, it is using real animals to stand in for prehistoric monsters. Unfortunately, a number of these animals were forced to fight one another, or used as throwaway props–creatures were harmed during the production of this film. That would certainly put off plenty of folks from seeing it.

The use of real animals also takes away from the fine effects work that was created for ONE MILLION. The various process shots, background plates, and unique sets are all done very well, and the climatic volcano eruption is spectacular. There’s nothing historically accurate about this film whatsoever, but it’s meant to be an epic adventure, and it is that. While watching ONE MILLION B.C. I noticed plenty of shot set-ups and compositions that reminded me of the original KING KONG–even if it wasn’t intentional it shows how the big ape’s shadow would loom large over fantastic cinema.

There’s something else that needs to be discussed about ONE MILLION B.C.–that is the involvement (or lack thereof) that pioneer director D.W. Griffith had on the project. Apparently Hal Roach asked Griffith to help out on pre-production for the film, and Griffith even wrote a script, but before actual filming began the legendary silent-film maker left the production (several sources give various versions why). There’s a debate on whether Hal Roach seriously wanted Griffith’s input, or he was just using him for publicity–but when one considers that ONE MILLION B.C. is essentially a movie without understandable dialogue, it would make sense to have the knowledge of a filmmaker from the silent era.

Is ONE MILLION B.C. better than the Hammer remake? The latter film is in color, it has Raquel Welch (and Martine Beswicke), and it features the superb stop-motion animation of Ray Harryhausen. The original does have a fun charm of its own, and at only about 80 minutes, it doesn’t overstay its welcome. If you are into off-beat cult movies, ONE MILLION B.C. is a title that needs to be seen at least once.